The Red Sun
by TheMsMorra
Summary: While it was the dangers and drama with Bella and Edward that surrounded the Cullens, it was the unseen events behind that curtain that mattered most in the end. It was what you didn't see, that truly kept everyone together.


**Authors Note: Well, here it is! The Red Sun, and I am hoping this will be very different then other stories you have read, but thats for you guys to decide. Bloodlust fans, I'm sorry I know, I'm trying to get a chapter out for you guys! Anyways, read, enjoy...and leaving a review means all the world to me too! **

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><p>The courtyard was once again buzzing with students. All off them chattering and gossiping like the teenagers they were, awaiting their fate for the new week. An old black Camaro pulled into the parking lot into its usual spot. Inside the dark haired girl grabbed her things and shut off the engine, hopping out, expecting to follow her usual pattern. Grab coffee, get out of the car, sit on its hood, and sip at the coffee waiting to spot one of her friends.<p>

The coffee tasted just a good as it did every morning, but didn't quite suffice for the less then amazing mood she was in that day. She had left the house with an immature slam of the door after an argument with her step-mother and so far going to school to deal with people she didn't like and sit in a classroom for 7 hours just edged her more. Had anyone agreed to go with her, she would have just skipped, but she preferred the company over the silence. When she caught sight of the 4 giggling girls near the stairs to the main entrance, Dani wanted to change her statement to select company.

With a last sip of her drink and a toss into the garbage, she got down and made her way over. She past a few groups she knew, Mike Newton and his friends. They were nice enough, but a little air-headed. The kind of people you talk to on a fieldtrip because you hate everyone else and walking through a museum on your own makes you look a little too much like a loser. She also passed the Cullens.

She had mixed feelings about them. While the two Emmett and Rosalie were older then her so she didn't know them, she knew the other 3 in her grade. Jasper was in her first period history. The two of them after a fairly awkward and forced welcoming to the school ended up discovering a few common interests between each other and had become friends, if she dared to say over the past month or so. There was Alice, who she shared English with. Most people saw her as weird or a freak, personally she found Alice very charming and cute. She was always perky and always willing to talk to everyone, the two of them got along very well. Then there was Edward, which she had Philosophy with. Now Edward, he was an asshole to put it nicely. He seemed to not want anyone's opinion on anything, and just didn't speak to people all that often, but when he did it was as if there was a naked guy covered in honey between the two of you.

She tried not to think about it that often, though he just really got under her skin. To be honest she was getting angrier thinking about it, and clearly her friends noticed. Her closest friend Katie came up to her halfway, "Get into a fight with the evil step-mother this morning?" Her face had a questioning look with a knowing meaning behind it.

"Well what do you expect? She takes my dad and Tommy out all night last night knowing I told her I wasn't going to be home then yells at me for staying out and not cleaning the house." Dani's face was contorted with anger and walked past Katie to get to the rest of them. All her friends were either shorter or of the same height, and obsessed with their looks. She didn't mind, sure she took care of herself, but she did think their extent was obsessive. Then again she found most teenagers are naturally obsessive over something in their life.

Overlooking the past month since school started, the more Dani realised that her friends were much more annoying then she originally determined when she first befriended them in grade 9. She wasn't about to ditch them, but as of this year she had been focused on her school work for a particular reason. She had another year left but graduation seemed to come closer every month passing by. Dani attributed it to the amount of neglect she felt from specific aspects to her life, but she knew that complaining about it would get her nowhere. As it usually did.

Joan, one of her blonde friends, put her phone away to pay attention to her oncoming friends. She looked from the different groups of the courtyard and her eyes fell to the group of overly pale kids all surrounding each other at their cars. Her eyes fell to the one standing alone, Edward and her mind wandered from innocent thoughts of the weekend, to things one wouldn't get away with saying at school. Without moving her eyes away, she leaned more towards Dani, "You have Philosophy with Edward right?"

Dani looked at her a tad curious, "Yeah why?"

Joan smirked flirtatiously before turning her eyes to Dani, "Is he…seeing anyone? I mean not that I care, but I just like to kno-" She was cut off by a laugh by her friends.

Katie spoke first, "Honey, you couldn't get with that boy if you tried. He's been here over a month and barley even looks at anyone but his family, let alone dates anyone." Her face was amused, she had seen first-hand people try and fail when throwing them at him.

"But, maybe if I just talked to him," Joan tried to change she way she approached the subject.

Dani threw her arm casually round her shoulder, "Joan, just give up now. I'm saving myself from enduring your stages of rejection." A twinge of uncertainty hit her. Whether she would listen to her advice wasn't an exact science. Either she would or wouldn't, and when she wouldn't it meant a week of crying and anger if it didn't go her way.

The other girls either agreed with Dani, or just occupied themselves with Forks High School girls' new favourite hobby: Staring at the Cullen boys. Dani wasn't about to object to it, while she didn't like Edward, she would admit that he, Emmett and Jasper were all incredibly attractive. The girls weren't a paper bag over the head either. Alice and Rosalie were stunning, perfect hair and makeup. A family of flawless people. She wondered whether or not their adoptive parents were the same thing.

Her thoughts were stopped abruptly by the first bell loudly blaring from the speakers. She removed her arm and tapped the girls closest to her on the arm, "Off to class we go. See you." Dani was the first to walk off, perfectly fine with getting to the class before other people.

There was a certain depressed state about Forks that was always scattered among the people. Many attributed it to the lack of sunlight the town got on a daily basis. It was truly remarkable, or unremarkable depending on one's point of view that one town could have so little sunlight. The rare day of sunlight, almost nobody spent their day inside, but once winter came around, it was 6 months at least until the sun made itself present. Living in Forks all her life Dani was accustomed to it, not letting it bother her, though she still lingered remembering the sun of Barbados over her summer vacation.

Swerving and dodging people in the halls were another thing she was used too. The smell of teenage stink fogged up the air and it was loud beyond comparison due to the conversations occurring in every direction. More and more as the minutes passed by, more people begun to lose their so called 'hallway etiquette'. They would bump into people, walk as slowly as possible, stop in the most inconvenient of spots and so on. A particular grade 9 stood right in the way of her and her class's door, so her first instinct was she use her shoulder and slam the kid to the side, receiving a loud "Hey!" as a result.

"You were standing in front of a class door that's not yours. You should have moved." Dani snapped back not in the mood to argue with an immature grade 9. She walked in greeting her teacher on the way. "Morning Tanner."

"Morning." Mr. Tanner responded, quickly glancing up from his desk, and back down. A group of rowdy boys had already settled into their seats, making noise and acting like an untamed group of chimpanzees. There were a few more studious girls placed in the front seats, books open and reading notes or adding to them. Nothing in the class was of interest until her eyes settled on the seat near the wall at one end of the room.

Dani smiled and walked over, placing her bag on the desk. Jasper Hale had arrived most likely a few moments before her, as he was just putting his own bag on the ground. "Good Morning, Danielle." He smiled at her. He was the only one who could get away with calling her by her full name. Jasper always had this proper gentleman way about him, and she could only guess that calling her by a nickname meant for a boy wasn't on the list of appropriate for him.

Dani pulled a drink from her bag and placed it on her desk before putting her bag beside her chair and sitting down next to him. "Jasper. I'd ask how your weekend was but if I hear that someone had a better weekend then me I may scream."

Jasper knew that. Well, he didn't know if she would actually scream, but he certainly could feel the anger the moment she walked into the room. "I assume your weekend involved another argument with your step-mother?" He watched as her hands found a place in her hair and her head slightly fell towards the desk. Exhaustion and anger were the two main things he could pull from her. Clearly she hadn't had a good weekend by her response, but somehow that made his day much more tempting. Whenever she got angry or even walked into the room angry, or he passed her in the halls and she was angry, it got better. She got angry more than usual, and it made her blood smell _very_ good. He stiffened slightly, something he did a lot upon meeting her.

A muffled chuckle came from Dani and she lifted her head, resting it on her hand. "Just the usual lecture on why I don't do my fair share." Her hand fell and she shook her hair out. "But, I'm here for another 7 hours, may as well make the most of it." She forced a smile, and knew Jasper saw right through it. Looking at him, she noticed how tense he was. She almost wanted to mention it, but didn't want to make him uncomfortable, so she settled for nodding her head and looking to the board.

The bell rang and everyone had gotten in, talking amongst each other, handing in late things asking Mr. Tanner questions and what not. The longer the two sat there, the more Jasper felt his control slipping. He wondered if Edward or Alice for that matter knew what was going on inside his head. If they had been suspecting the exact things he had, or sensed the horrific images that would cross his mind.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you." Dani apologized, realising she would rather not go through the entire period in a silence.

Jasper gave her a smile in return, "You're angry, it's understandable. Do you know if he is giving out the assignment today or tomorrow?" He asked, quickly changing the subject. Mr. Tanner was known for not giving out many assignments, but all of them were long and pain staking with much writing that could give a novelist carpel tunnel.

Dani inhaled a shallow breathe and looking at the papers on his desk. "Probably, something to get the unit started."

The class started and Mr. Tanner begun his usual long but interesting lecture, introducing the unit they were going to be focusing on. Most of the class was full of the two of them writing something down, paying attention or exchanging small barley a whisper conversation to one another for the duration.

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><p>The rest of the day had gone smoothly, and finally it was the end of the day, Dani very happy to reach Philosophy. She sat next to Alice, whom provided much entertainment. Already looking happy to see her, Alice greeted her with the usual perkiness she possessed. "Dani, I didn't get to say Hi to you at lunch!"<p>

Dani waved her hand off like nothing, "It's okay. Joan had an incident with her boyfriend and got upset, needed me to comfort her for the _whole_ 75 minutes."

Alice's expression changed to concern, "Is she okay?"

Dani smiled, "Don't worry, the two have the most unhealthy arguments, but they always get back together by the next day, weekend at the latest." Most of her time was spent threatening to yell at her boyfriend and saying that everything was going to be okay. Somehow she didn't feel the amount of caring for Joan's issues that she should have, but the anger built up inside her and made her extremely angry.

The class started and discussed the article they all read the day before, and with 30 minutes left, they had time to talk once more.

"What are you doing after school?" Alice suddenly asked her. She looked excited.

"Nothing, why you have something in mind?" Dani asked, taking her sweater off and putting it on the back of her chair. She didn't spend much in the way of time with Alice off school grounds, though she would like too.

"I was hoping we could go shopping! The malls open to 9 on weekdays now; it would be the perfect time to get that new school year shopping done!" Alice's smile had it impossible to say no, not that Dani would say it anyways.

"Definitely! I mean I didn't get to do any before school started."

"Perfect, we can go right after school if you want to take your car." Alice didn't even have a car to herself, so if she wanted to give time at the house to what the rest of them wanted to talk about, going right away would be perfect. They were going to ask her to give them private time anyways, so she made it easier for them.

"I just have to fill it up before getting there, unless we want to push it." Dani laughed, Alice joining in, knowing she could if she wanted too. Sometimes personal inside jokes to Alice amused her to no end. Especially around humans, they never got them but assumed she would look normal, as normal as people thought of her.

"Sounds great!" Alice stood up and walked over to her brother, far in the back to himself. His face wasn't happy; in fact he looked very annoyed with her.

"Alice, I know you like her, but is this really the best idea?" Edwards's voice was accusatory. Alice and him were close, he knew she liked to do things based on the things she would see I her visions. "She could cause trouble."

Alice gave him a look, "She won't, and I've seen it. Me and her will be good friends." Edward was looking at her.

"I've heard what she thinks. If she gets to curious, " He was cut off with Alice's easily expected defensive retort.

"Have faith Edward! I can handle her. Now, I didn't come over here to argue, I wanted to tell you that that talk you guys are going to make me not listen to can happen after school. Me and Dani are taking her car and going shopping." With Alice, that sudden change in topic meant conversation over. You learn not to argue with Alice. She always ended the conversation before anyone could get mad. The peace-keeping-pixie as Emmett referred to her as.

Alice practically skipped over to her and sat down. "It's settled!"

"Awesome!" The two of them spent the rest of the half an hour discussing the different clothes they needed, wanted, where they should go and whatnot. Alice typically brought out the girly side of Dani. The happy and girly side that most assumed Dani never had. She had one, but only did certain people have the chance at seeing it.

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><p>The mall wasn't too packed, most of the stores they went into were expensive had lacked people anyhow. Alice and Dani already had 2 bags each, and they had just gotten started. It begun simply with a shoe store, and then they decided that there was a nice store with belts and scarves nearby. Dani was spending more money than she could afford too, but at the moment it didn't matter. She would risk being yelled at for the fun she was having.<p>

"What about there!" Alice pointed to a store with beautiful looking tops inside of it. Dani looked over and her eye caught one top in particular. A red Halter top just screamed for her to try on.

"Look at those tops!" They scurried over and walked in. The store was full of gorgeous looking clothing. Dani walked right up and picked up the top that had been calling out to her and held it up to her chest. "What do you think?"

Alice turned holding a blue shirt to herself when Dani had asked her. "Let's go find out shall we?" They laughed and walked to the change room. Alice was wondering what they were talking about exactly at home. All she had seen was them asking to leave with a serious conversation that seemed to revolve around Carlisle and Jasper. Was it about her? Most things she could think of would revolve around her, with the odd things going on. I mean, she was befriending a human which has resulted in her visions getting fuzzy and very unclear lately.

Alice tried to shake her unsure thoughts from her head as she took a look in the mirror. The blue suited her perfectly. With a small smile of slight satisfaction she walked out seeing Dani in hers as well. "That looks great on you." She told her.

Dani smiled and looked at Alice. "That is perfect for you." Taking a peek at the price tag, Dani hesitated, "and this certainly will be the last thing I buy before I run myself dry."

Alice laughed, "I think we've bought enough for one day anyways." She said playfully. As they went back into their respective change rooms, they continued to talk. "So what exactly is going on with you and your friends?"

Dani's face switched to confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You always look annoyed sitting with them at lunch, but you're very pleasant once you get to class." Alice explained, it had been bothering her when she would see her at lunch.

"Oh that." Dani continued to put her old shirt on as she thought about it for a moment. "I guess they just talk a lot." Exiting the change room, shirt in hand Dani continued to explain, "I mean, they talk so much about their own social life it feels like I never have a chance to talk about something interesting."

Alice nodded, and the two walked to the register. "You don't like talking about yourself?"

"No no no! I do, it's just endless with them. I could bring up any topic like, books, television, philosophy, and they stare at me like I told them I had a pet Cthulhu." Their stuff was placed on the counter, and Dani looked at Alice, happy to see her reaction.

Alice smiled, "They wouldn't even know who H.P Lovecraft was, I'm guessing?" Dani's laugh was an answer enough, but she heard a yes in there somewhere. "I know what you mean. You want to have a conversation that is more then what they and their boyfriends did over the weekend." Alice knew many girls would talk like that, and people mistaken her for one of them. She felt that just because she was perky didn't mean she didn't like intelligent discussions.

They both handed their money to the woman behind the counter, and Dani looked as if she was selling her soul to be paying as much as she was. "Exactly. I mean, I unfortunately know every detail about what they do together." Dani shook her head in disgust, "but that is beside the point."

The two walked out of the store and absentmindedly walked in the same direction not having a destination. Alice looked up at the time and thought Dani's parents would probably want her home soon. "We should probably get going."

Dani checked her phone to see the time, "Oh crap, we should. You want a ride home?"

Alice shook her head, "I have a few things I need to do first, you go on ahead, and I'll be fine." She knew that they, mainly Edward and Rosalie wouldn't like having a human drive her home, so she figured running would be fine.

Dani nodded her head, and Alice gave her a hug, the two parting ways once reaching the door. "I'll see you tomorrow!" Alice yelled cheerfully, seeing Dani's wave back and she struggled to hold her phone, 3 bags and get her car keys out while walking. Alice waved and started in the direction of the back of the mall where there were little people.

As she suspected no one was there. It was dark already, since winter was coming in a month or two, and silence filled the area. It took her a moment to conjure up the right direction, but figured it out quickly, darting off at a speed that any human present wouldn't have noticed her run by them. Trees and plants zoomed by her quickly, and the air rushing past her face felt refreshing. There was something about running with no purpose that made Alice feel calm. Not for hunting, not for chasing, not for running away, but just running.

Before she knew it she came upon the house, and a smile crossed her delicate features. Alice came to a stop, and walked the rest of the way up checking to make sure all her things were fine. As the door opened she was greeted with an always smiling Esme. "You have a fun time Alice?"

Alice held up her bags, "Very. Did you guys get to talk about whatever you didn't want me to hear?" One who didn't know Alice that well would have missed it, but Esme heard that uncertainty in her tone. She was worried that it was something bad.

"We did." Esme immediately felt bad for not informing Alice of what was going. "Everything is fine, Alice. Jasper and Carlisle wanted to talk about something, and didn't want you to worry. You'll have to ask Jasper about it." Esme placed a hand on her arm comfortingly. She motioned to the bags, "You go talk to him, and I'll take these upstairs for you."

"Thanks, Esme." She smiled and gracefully made her way to the balcony where she saw Jasper standing. The door opened quickly, but enough to alert him of her presence.

He looked over his shoulder and smiled at her. "Did you have a good time?" Alice moved closer to him and hopped onto the railing beside where he leaned on.

"We bought 3 full bags each. I would say it was successful." Jasper laughed.

"You always had a way of bringing out the shopping demon inside every girl." Jasper felt the worry and concern, but waited for her to ask him about the evening.

"I would normally ask you what you all talked about, but I have a feeling that you'll tell me when the time is right." Alice's mind thought to Dani; the way she and Jasper were close to her, Edwards warning about her getting to curious, her own visions becoming strained and unclear lately, Alice couldn't help but assume it had something to do with her. Her eyes looked through the glass doors and fell upon Edward, knowing he was reading her thoughts.

Jasper looked over. "His staring at you is a dead giveaway at what he's doing isn't it?" His voice sounded annoyed. They all hated it when Edward used his power to hear other's conversations. "Alice, I would tell you, but I want more time to figure out what's going on before bringing this to you. It's a burden you don't deserve to have to suffer through." His face was soft and voice, gentle.

Alice returned the soft and gentle look. "I won't argue with you. When you're ready, come tell me. We can work through this, all of us, together." She leaned in and gave him a peck on the lips, before hopping down, leaving Jasper to his thoughts once more.

Alice knew Forks was going to be interesting from the moment they stepped foot on the land, and she didn't have to see the future to know that something big was going to happen and soon.


End file.
